The Rutgers football team is halfway through its first regular season under head coach Chris Ash, where the results have been far from optimal.The Scarlet Knights are 2-4 through six games, having been outscored 287-62 in the process of facing 3 of the top 5 teams in the nation throughout the stretch.The worst has come in the Knights’ two most recent games at No. 2 Ohio State and at home against No. 4 Michigan, where they completed just five passes and gained 155 total yards en route to losing both games by a combined 156-0.Things can really only go up from here.“I told the players, sometimes in life you hit rock bottom before you bounce up and go swinging and go in the right direction,” Ash told reporters in his post-practice availability Thursday.

As soon as the Rutgers volleyball team falls to the No. 2 ranked team in the nation in Wisconsin, it makes the trip up to University Park, Pennsylvania to take on the team who knocked off the No. 1 ranked team.The Scarlet Knights (4-14, 0-5) and the Penn State Nittany Lions (13-3, 5-0) will duke it out on Penn State’s home court Saturday night at 7 p.m.

David Bonagura went nearly four years without kicking in a real game situation.His last live kick was as a high school senior in December, 2012, knocking in a 48-yard, game-winning field goal at Kean University to secure a state championship for Ramapo High. In the Rutgers football team's season opener against then-No. 14 Washington, the redshirt junior was thrust back into game action for the first time in more than three years in front of 70,000-plus, rowdy fans at Husky Stadium.But the atmosphere, nor the long layoff between kicking in game situations, seemed to faze Bonagura.On his first attempt of his collegiate career the Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, native sneaked a 38-yard field goal just over the upright to put the Scarlet Knights on the board late in the first half."Kicking is a production-oriented business," Bonagura said of his first career kick. "Three points is three points, but when it came off my foot I knew it was gonna go in.

No. 3 Louisville in 2006. No. 2 South Florida in 2007.Michigan in 2014.These three games, arguably the biggest victories in the history of the Rutgers football program, are all loosely connected by a single thread — they were all played under the bright lights of High Point Solutions Stadium in a primetime broadcast in front of a national audience.The Scarlet Knights have a chance to add to the list this Saturday against the No. 4 Wolverines in what will be the first annual "Stripe the Birthplace" game, a promotion run by the athletic department in which fans will alternate between black and red attire to literally stripe the stands of the Birthplace of College Football.“Hopefully it's a great atmosphere and a lot of fans show up,” said head coach Chris Ash of his first night game at the helm in Piscataway.

No. 4 Michigan is taking its show on the road for the first time after starting its season with four straight home games, going to the state its head coach has set up as a second home of sorts.In his first full recruiting class since becoming the Wolverines’ head coach in 2015, Jim Harbaugh brought in 5 of the top 8 recruits in New Jersey — including the nation’s top recruit on the defensive end Rashan Gary — and his cherry-picking of the Garden State doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.The top prospect of New Jersey’s 2017 recruiting class Drew Singleton released a top 12 of his over 20 scholarship offers that contains both Michigan and Rutgers — the home state team that’s struggled to keep top programs like the Wolverines’ from stealing in-state recruits.

The Rutgers football team was back on the practice field Sunday, the day after suffering a historic 58-0 drubbing at the hands of No. 2 Ohio State with little positives to go off of.The mood reflected the previous day’s result as the Scarlet Knights (2-3, 0-1) went through the usual routine of meetings and recovery work on the day after a game.“Obviously it's a somber feeling when you go through a game like that,” said head coach Chris Ash a day removed from suffering the largest blowout in a Big Ten regular season game since 1981 to the program he left to come to Rutgers.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Pitted up against a potent Ohio State offense Saturday at Ohio Stadium, the Rutgers football team couldn't have asked for a better start from its defense.After forcing the Scarlet Knights into a punt on the game's first drive, Heisman Trophy candidate J.T.

Chris Ash is returning to Columbus for the first time since January this Saturday but rather than coaching the Ohio State defense from the press box, he’ll be directing the Rutgers football team from the sideline and rather than coaching with Urban Meyer, he’ll be going against him.Ash said multiple times throughout his weekly press conference that the matchup between the Scarlet Knights (2-2, 0-1) and the No. 2 Buckeyes (3-0, 0-0) isn’t about him but about the players and what they produce on the field, but the storyline of his return is a compelling one fans are always going to care about, never mind the fact the coach that dug Rutgers from obscurity as a national laughing stock to a top-10 team in the country in 6 years is his replacement.While interesting, the Greg Schiano / Chris Ash role swap is little more than symbolic as their relationship remains friendly and they occasionally pick each others brains, but they never worked with each other.

The Rutgers football team opened its season in Seattle, home of the 12th man, the loudest fans in the National Football League known to have caused seismic waves with the noise they make cheering on their beloved Seahawks.The Scarlet Knights didn’t face the Seahawks nor did they play at CenturyLink Stadium as they did in 2014 when they opened their season with a 41-38 win over Washington State, but they did play in another venue known for its size and volume.Husky Stadium may not have been filled to its newly expanded capacity of 70,083 when then-No. 14 Washington trounced the Knights 48-13 on September 3, but the 58,640 who made the trip were loud enough to disrupt the visitors’ offense at times as they wouldn’t enter the endzone until the final moments of the game.Now imagine how much influence double that many people can have.Rutgers’ (2-2, 0-1) next stop is in Columbus to take on No. 2 Ohio State at historic Ohio Stadium.

Homecoming at Ohio State falls on the first day of October, the second month of a season the football team has started by winning its first three games.As per tradition, thousands of alumni, former players and coaches will flock to Ohio Stadium, returning to their former stomping grounds as the No. 2 Buckeyes aim to reach the College Football Playoff for the second time in three years.Far from traditional, the head coach of the opposition is one of the former Buckeyes returning to the Horseshoe, but make no mistake — Chris Ash isn’t taking a trip to the Midwest to win Homecoming King.

When senior wide receiver Janarion Grant remained on the ground following a 76-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter of the Rutgers football team’s matchup with Iowa last Saturday, the air seemed to be sucked out of High Point Solutions Stadium and only returned when he was given a standing ovation as he limped off the turf.When senior defensive end Quanzell Lambert remained on the ground after making a crucial tackle to force the Hawkeyes into a third down, the energy among the 44,061 fans in attendance remained nearly the same as the Scarlet Knights came closer to achieving a key stop to keep their chances alive.The Timber Creek High School product received a standing ovation as loud as the one Grant was given as he was carted off the field with a brace on his right knee, but the crowd grew silent shortly after as LeShun Daniels rushed 12 yards to gain a first down and seal a 14-7 win for Iowa.Playing in Lambert’s place was Darnell Davis, a junior who started his career at Rutgers as a walk-on, received a scholarship under former head coach Kyle Flood, but is now back to playing as walk-on.Davis was on the right edge of the defensive line on the play following Lambert’s injury — one that will keep him and Grant out for the season — and it was the right side that Daniels’ exploited as he rounded the edge on his way to the first down.The play wasn’t Davis’ finest — he was contained by the offensive lineman across from him — but it was far from the level he’s been performing in the increased number of reps he’s been trusted with this season, one that rivals that of the player he’s replacing.“Darnell has played several snaps of football already,” said head coach Chris Ash.